At NOI, we teach the practice of recognizing campaign successes and failures (That's right, failures, too. See Rootscamp's Most Valuable Experiment). In the interest of recognizing the results of our efforts, we set aside week-long debriefs and often produce hefty postmortems from our programs, but rarely do we take the time to reflect on our own successes and failures after each workday. Even more uncomfortably, rarely do we share our findings publicly or with our colleagues. Nobody wants to admit they endured challenges or even possibly failed at work, right? Well, apparently if we are to be better coworkers and leaders that is precisely what we should do. According to Peter Bregman, guest blogger at the Harvard Business Review, we are getting older and wiser but still making the same mistakes over and over, and, just as bad, failing to repeat those tactics that helped us succeed. Why? Because we don't take time each day to pause and reflect (Apparently he isn't the only one who thinks we don't sit still often enough. Check out this new site challenging you to do nothing for 2 minutes). What he suggests next is truly crazy: stop emailing, take a Twitter break, close Facebook...and just think. Peter suggested reflecting on the following questions at the end of each day:

• How did the day go? What success did I experience? What challenges did I endure?
• What did I learn today? About myself? About others? What do I plan to do - differently or the same - tomorrow?
• Who did I interact with? Anyone I need to update? Thank? Ask a question? Share feedback?

I admit that this is easier said than done. In the name of transparency, I should reveal that I attempted every day last week to answer these simple questions, and, as Peter anticipated, I convinced myself that I was too busy and didn't have the time. But I am determined to give it another shot, and this time I am challenging all my colleagues to take the challenge as well. We created a Google form to fill out every night, and the results are public for everyone to see. We created a calendar reminder, too, and so far, so good! We have all completed our first 2 days of reflection, taking time as a group to compare how we expected the day to go to with how it actually went. I feel pretty good about it- 2 down, 3 to go. So, are you sold? Can you commit to reflecting for 5 minutes each day? If you take on the challenge, let us know how it went. The NOI Organizing Team is committed for at least one week. We'll let you know how it goes!